Casimiroa edulis (White Sapote) - i heard these are excellent fruit in Southern California and dont do as well here.

Manilkara zapota (Sapodilla) - cold hardy in my experience

Diospyros digyna (Black Sapote)- large beautiful tree, fruit has to be prepared but is rich

Chrysophyllum cainito (Star Apple) - never tried the fruit, beautiful foliage

Pouteria campechiana (Canistel) - popular here, has to be prepared to be palatable imo

Spondias dulcis (June Apple) - dwarf ambarella june plum is a dwarf prolific variety, june plum may be a large tree

Pouteria sapota (Mamey Sapote) - large tree, fruit takes long to develop

inga edulis (Ice Cream Bean) - is a nitrogen fixing tree

Pouteria caimito (Abiu)- never tried fruit

Averrhoa carambola (Star Fruit) - varieties sri kemabangan, kary, fwang tung in that order

Dimocarpus longana (Longan) - koala is a superior variety

Thanks Mangokush for the reply. From the info you gave me; canistel, mamey sapote, and black sapote may not make the cut.

Sapodilla and White Sapote are now on my want list :). June Plum is sounding like it would adapt to a container in SoCal pretty well, has anyone tasted June Plum?

*Pouteria caimito (Abiu)-

I heard this taste similar to caramel flan. It has a creamy jelly texture. However after doing more research on this, I believe it would do poorly in a container setting (due to size).

Chrysophyllum cainito (Star Apple)-

This one interest me, from online description the fruit sounds tasty. Another nice feature is it bears fruit all year round. The only down side is the trees size is large from the info I gathered.

Hi nullzero,

I tasted star apple (Chrysophyllum cainito) last year. It was good. Not exceptional but a nice slightly sweet and non-complex flavor. I now grow a few small plants of star apple from the seeds I spat out.

Tomas

Star apple - (Caimito) only produces fruit here in March/April, not all year. It is good, but it is very latexy. I thought it was ultra tropical and can be a huge tree.

Abiu has some latex, but I like it better than caimito. Not exactly caramel flan like, but tasty. My trees are not so large that they couldn't be adaptable for containers.

Though a dwarf June apple will grow/fruit in a pot, it has too much seed compared to fruit for me.

I love sapodillas- these are brown sugar pears to me.

Skip the Inga- large tree and the fruit is ok, but not something I would go out of my way to eat. Kind of dry.

Definitely do Star fruit, easy and good.

White sapote is definitely worth growing/eating. But....they can develop into huge trees that produce more fruit than you can possibly consume with agressive surface roots. You'd probably be wise to stick to Suebelle, a naturally smaller cultivar. It's not as vigorous as others but the fruit is good.

I'd like to try Starfruit in a container as well, but better track down one of the sweeter varieties unless you like sour fruit (and it's another one that is supposed to produce huge amounts of fruit--perhaps not so much in a container).

Thank you everyone for the replies; I was able to narrow down my wanted list to this;

Starfruit (sweet cultivar; ex. sri kemabangan, kary, fwang tung)

White Sapote (Suebelle cultivar)

Sapodilla (Silas Woods cultivar)

Now the question is, where to find the Silas Woods cultivar of the Sapodilla.

how low do the temps get during a bad winter where you are?

from what i can tel Jaboticaba is pretty cold happy as well.

some varieties of Jackfruit like Black Gold are vigorous and can take some cold too.

The lowest temps that I have observed have been about 31 degrees. Moving my containers around into the garage or against the side of the home, should be enough micro climate for a freak event of low 30s. I would assume it has never gotten colder on record then mid 20s (There are old commercial avocado groves about 6 miles away from my garden). I am growing Jaboticaba, unfortunately its still a small tree 6-7 years from fruiting.

So far this spring-early summer has been mild with temps ranging in the high 60s to mid 70s most of the time. My plants are loving the weather though. Its been partly cloudy almost everyday for the last month or so with 30-70% humidity (depending on time of the day) with temps in the low to high 70s.

hi nullzero,

i will tell you about my opinions/experinces about those fruit trees:

Casimiroa edulis (White Sapote): yes, but get grafted one. the fruit of a seedling can be very poor!

Manilkara zapota (Sapodilla): depends if you like the fruit. i do. the tree is very adaptable as long as it gets enough heat.

Diospyros digyna (Black Sapote): beautiful tree, quite adaptable. my cultivar (unnamed) is very productive, but the fruits are small. the taste reminds me of dates. i enjoy them!

Chrysophyllum cainito (Star Apple): the fruits i've tasted were ok, but not complex, i would say just sweet. the tree is beautiful, but i think it needs a humid climate. mine does not grow too well in my hot-dry climate.

Pouteria campechiana (Canistel): adaptable tree. fruit should be prepared. very similar to lucuma.

Spondias dulcis (June Apple): tasty fruit. i don't have experience growing it.

Pouteria sapota (Mamey Sapote): i love the fruit! unfortunately, it needs a humid climate. where i live, it looses fruit and leaves when it gets too hot and dry in summer. that means the production is poor in my region. at the moment i'm trying with pouteria viridis as an alternative. my seedlings are only one year old, so i can't evaluate.

inga edulis (Ice Cream Bean): must have! hansom tree (not too big!). the flesh is ver tasty, more like a snack. i would compare it to water melon; not too sweet and very refreshing! the alternative could be pacae (ingas felles), maybe better for subtropical climate. excellent fruit, too.

Pouteria caimito (Abiu): the fruit is supposed to be excellent. no experience.

Averrhoa carambola (Star Fruit): does not like wind. i like the fruit as long as it is ripe, and it's a sweet cultivar. i've heard sri ken bangan is suppossed to be one of the sweetest cultivar..

Dimocarpus longana (Longan): i love the fruit! quite adaptable tree in my opinion. which cultivar?! MK sais kohala, i think thai cultivars a sweeter.. or am i wrong?!

another tree i would recomend you is the rose apple. it grows and fruits well in subtropical regions, not too big, very hansom, spectacular flowering and nice fruit.

felipe

My comments regarding the fruits you were inquiring about:

Casimiroa edulis (White Sapote)......nice fruit, some people with some fruits get a bitter aftertaste when eating the fruit. That aside, the tree is very cold tolerant and when you get a good fruit.....it is excellent

Manilkara zapota (Sapodilla).....nice tree, good cold tolerance, fruit is like a brown sugary pear....no complexity if you are into tart/sweet combinations, but some people love them. I like them, but can only eat so much.

Diospyros digyna (Black Sapote)....easy tree to grow and fruit. For me, the fruit is of limted use....but it is loaded with great nutrients. I don't find the dark flesh particularly appetizing in look or feel. I would taste it before I planted it.

Chrysophyllum cainito (Star Apple)....another sweet without complexity fruit. Some latex when you eat too close to the skin. Beautiful tree and seems to be pretty hardy. Interesting fruit but not in my top tier of fruits.

Pouteria campechiana (Canistel).....some are pretty chalky but there are cultivars out there that are eatable out of hand. It can always be used in prepared dishes....has great nutritive values. You might want to try Ross Sapote before planting this tree, as I think it is superior. The canistel tree, when in full fruit, is a wonder to behold.

Spondias dulcis (June Plum or Golden Apple)...lots of Caribbean and Asian people like this green, ripe, pickeld or in chutneys. I'm not crazy about it. For me a minor fruit...but interesting to grow.

Pouteria sapota (Mamey Sapote)....used to make milk shakes and better cultivars are good out of hand. Creamy and rich in flavor/texture. I can only eat so much of it. For me, not a top tier fruit. Others would disagree...especially if they hail from Cuba.

inga edulis (Ice Cream Bean)......have had only two tastings of this. The first from a tree at Mount's Botanical Garden in W. Palm Beach. The second was a seedling of that tree that I grew. From my limited sampling, I was very unimpressed. I hear there are better fruits around, so I have an open mind to trying it again. The tree is a fast grower and is nice looking.

Pouteria caimito (Abiu) similar to Chrysophyllum cainito (Star Apple)...but yellow skinned. In the fruits I have tried, there was less of a latex issue. Flesh is somewhat jelly like and sweet without complexity.

Averrhoa carambola (Star Fruit)prolific fruiting tree. Nice looking and easy to control growth habit. Must get a good cultivar. There are many out there that are not worth growing.

Dimocarpus longana (Longan)......nice fruit.....to me not as good as lychee, but some would argue that. The best I have had are Biew Kiew and See Chompoo (or I have also seen it Sri Chompoo). Not tart at all...instead has a kind of spicy flavor.

Good luck with your selection

Harry

I love Mamey Sapote, Sapodilla, and Black Sapote. Longans are OK but I like Lychees better.

Star Fruit is kind of boring in my opinion but some people love it. Trees tend to over-produce

Haven't eaten enough of the others to give an opinion.

Thank you for all the replies. Personal experience with these fruits is giving me a good perspective of the fruits and growing habits.

I may give ice cream bean a try as well, it sounds like it gets mixed reviews on taste. However the foliage looks nice and the nitrogen fixing properties are a nice plus. The june plum interest me as well, the prolific fruiting and dwarf stature really is a advantage for container growing.

recently i've been searching in the web for information about ingas. the result is that in found vey little information, very imprecise and even wrong facts! many sources mix up the different species/names and no one metions cultivars..

one year ago i was in the peruvian amazon. i visited research centers and spoke to some agronomists. they told me they had selected material of i. edulis, but not named. some cultivars fixed more nitrogen, other had better fruit productions, other better drought tolerance.. despite of the excellent fruit, inga edulis was used for inter-cropping and for reforestation. it's very surprising to me, that outside peru, nobody has 'discovered' inga edulis (guaba). the tree looks like this:

the pods you see on the trees were still small. full grown/ripe, they are 3 ft long!

if you don't find inga edulis, try to get pacae. this tastes also very good!

So inga edulis is the better taste of the two? Trade Winds Fruit has both the Inga Edulis and Inga feuillei (Pacay). I heard the Pacay is more frost hardy, however frost is not really a big concern in most parts of southern california.

Another fruit that has spurred my interest is Borojoa patinoi(Borojo). Does anyone have information on this?

Yes, in my opinion inga edulis (guaba) tastes the best. second one and very silmilar to me, is the pacae (or pacay, i. felles or i. feuillei, i'm not sure about the scientific names), specially the pacae called 'pacae grueso' by peruvians:

http://www.chinaperuana.com/culture/peru/pages/pacay_jpg.htm

smaller ones i eat, tasted not that good.

i don't know about cold tollerance. peruvians told me that pacae grows west from the andes (pacific coast: subtropical climate) and the guaba east, in the amazon basin (tropical). but it seems, that you can grow guaba also in subtropical regions. i know of a guy growing it successful in malaga (spain). i think if it grows in malaga (subtropical microclimate), it must grow in socal too!

at the moment i only have seedlings of two types of pacae, but in future i would like to try with guaba, too..

felipe

Regarding star fruit, be mindful that some reports indicate this fruit can irritate the kidneys if over consumed. For those with kidney issues, best to avoid it altogether.

I have only eaten canistel out of hand and enjoy the taste, texture. It does not rank as nearly highly as the mamey sapote out of hand though. Mamey is in my top 5 fruits.

My inga edulis came from tradewinds and the seedling were already sprouting in the package. Luckily, 2 of the 3 seeds took. (Wasn't so lucky with cinnamon which also sprouted before received.) My inga have yet to produce so can't comment on the taste.

The longans I've had have less flesh than lychee but virtually taste the same or very similar. Sapodilla's are real gems - pure brown sugary taste. Not for everyone but I dig them. From seed they are very slow growers although oddly, I saw one reference to them as one of the few trees to bear in a single year from seed. Go figure.

Haven't eaten june plums but seem them sit on a tree for what seemed like a year....unripe.

I read about the possible kidney problems with star fruit. I was thinking of just having one star fruit tree. There are other trees out there that I want as well. I may opt for a Longan over a star fruit for my next tropical fruit tree.

If I have to choose, I would opt for longan intead of carambola. Just keep in mind, that longan is a very small tree, while longan is a mid-sized one (I've seen them quite big)..

i think you mean carambola can be a large tree.

longan can become pretty large as well, Bill Whitmans tree is where all the original Koalas came from and his son used a cherry picker to make airlayers

carambola does have oxalic acid. its in trivial amounts however, and its processed along with other unneeded elements of our diet. Rhubarb contains it too. it is recommended you avoid it if you suffer from kidney disorders and kidney stones, gout, rheumatoid arthritis

there are so many unknown nutrients in tropical fruits who knows how beneficial they are.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://oxalicacidinfo.com/

Nullzero,
Another carmabola variety I like and you may want to consider is called Bell. It has an orange / sunset colored flesh that is very sweet and refreshing.

As for the Sapodilla, I prefer Hasya and Alano, in that order. I've have recently seen some Silas Woods Sapodilla's but not from anybody that ships them. I saw some of them at Excalibur Fruit Tree nursery in Lake Worth, Fl (but they were very small and recently grafted)and at the Manatee Rare Fruit Council sale (near Sarasota, Fl). Be prepared, they are not cheap if your looking for anything of size...

If your considering mamey sapote, you may want to consider a green sapote. Supposedly, they are better then mamey sapote's. However, I can not attest to the taste as mine is still a little guy. I got mine from Lara Farms over in Homestead, FL. I believe Pine Island Nursery sells them and they do ship. But, If space is an issue, this one and many of the other mentioned above maybe too big.

Another one to consider on the smaller size is the Atemoya, but I'm not sure how it would do there in California.

Good luck

Thanks for the responses guys. Since I grow all my fruit trees in containers I may pass on the Longan. Star fruit and June Plum are still on my wanted list. Atemoya and Cherimoya grows very well here in SoCal. I actually have (2) +1 year old grafted cherimoya trees growing in containers, one of them has held a fruit and its getting bigger by the day.

Inga may do well for you. I have two seedlings in containers. They grow quickly, and unlike most leguminous trees, I've heard that they do fairly well in containers. The only issue I've had with them - when they are outdoors, various leaf eaters that ignore my other plants seem to love them, beetles in particular. No major damage, but a nuisance for sure.

What size pots are you doing your cherimoyas in? How do they do as container trees?

Davecito,

I am growing one cherimoya in a homemade 15 gallon container. The other is still growing in its original 3 gallon container (I plan to replant this one soon). I actually have Pacay (Inga feuillei) now sprouted and growing in smaller containers. I also recently obtained a 7ft tall Suebelle White Sapote tree.

I am working on sprouting some Borojoa patinoi (Borojo) seeds as well. Does anyone have experience with growing the Borojo?

1. Mamey Sapote
2. Longan

The other fruits, I'd never tasted so I can't give you my opinion about the others.

Mammey sapote (Pouteria sapota), in addition to producing delicious fruit (tastes like a very sweet, sweet potato). It is also is a beautiful tree with a very distinctive look. However, I believe that this tree will not be happy outside the humid/rainy tropics.

Agree.^ Green sapote should do better. I've read that it just like mamey sapote, if not, better. It's also more cold tolerant and grows naturally in the highlands of central America.

Hello ,
Read that someone might have yellow Jaboticaba seed and wonder If you would consider parting with a few seeds
Ursula
culejools@yahoo.ca